Gender, planning, and academic expectations in first-year higher education students: testing two alternative mediation models

Abstract We examined the relationships among gender, planning, and academic expectations through the testing of two alternative models with latent variables tested with LISREL 8.80: one model considered planning as a mediator of the relationship between gender and academic expectations, and the other model considered academic expectations as mediators of the relationship between gender and planning. Participants were 662 first-year higher-education students from two academic years, predominantly female (60%) and mainly with majors in the juridical-social field (66.2%). The Inventario sobre Estrategias Metacognitivas (IEM; Inventory of Metacognitive Strategies) and the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ) were applied at the beginning of the first semester to assess planning and academic expectations, respectively. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the IEM's structure after examining its psychometric properties with the sample from the first academic year (N = 338). The test of the alternative mediation models with the full sample indicates that the best model was that with planning as a mediator. In this model, gender directly predicted only two APQ academic expectations, but with the mediation of planning, gender predicted all seven academic expectations. Women showed higher levels of academic expectations and planning than did men. The results are discussed at both the theoretical and practical levels.

Equivalencia factorial de las versiones en español y portugués de un cuestionario de expectativas académicas / Factorial equivalence of the Spanish and Portuguese versions of a questionnaire of academic expectations

Resumen Este estudio presenta los resultados de una investigación sobre expectativas académicas de estudiantes universitarios de primer año de Enseñanza Superior (ES) pertenecientes al norte de Portugal y noroeste de España. Su objetivo es replicar las propiedades psicométricas del instrumento utilizado obtenidas con una versión anterior del mismo. La muestra está integrada por 1.268 estudiantes de primer año de ES con edades comprendidas entre los 17 y 52 años (Mdn = 18, siendo de más de 23 años el 7.4%). Proceden de la región noroeste de España 413 estudiantes (Galicia, Universidad de Vigo) y 855 de la región norte de Portugal (Minho, Universidade do Minho). El 58.1% del total de la muestra son mujeres. Por ámbito de estudio, el 58.4% cursa titulaciones del ámbito científico-tecnológico y los demás del ámbito jurídico-social. Se aplicó el Cuestionario de Percepciones Académicas-Expectativas (CPA-E), estructurado en siete dimensiones: Formación para el empleo/carrera, Desarrollo personal y social, Movilidad estudiantil, Implicación político/ciudadana, Presión social, Calidad de formación e Interacción social. La invarianza del modelo factorial oblicuo del CPA-E fue testada con el LISREL 8.80 mediante el método bivariado latente normal y la estimación de máxima verosimilitud, con la corrección de Satorra y Bentler (1994). Todos los ítems representaron bien a sus respectivos factores y los factores mostraron una buena validez y fiabilidad para los países y el género. Se obtuvo, por tanto, invarianza factorial del modelo para los países y el género. Se asume una versión final del cuestionario común para España y Portugal, así como para mujeres y hombres.

Abstract We present the results of a study conducted with first-year students from the Euro-region of Galicia-North Portugal, with the aim of replicating the psychometric properties of the instrument as obtained from a prior version. Participants included 1268 first-year students with ages ranging from 17 to 52 years (Mdn = 18; 7.4% with ages above 23 years). Four-hundred and thirteen students are from the North Spanish region (Galicia, University of Minho) and 855 are from the North Portuguese region (Minho, University of Minho), and 58.1% of the students are women. Students are enrolled in scientific-technological courses (58.4%) and juridical-social studies. We administered the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire- Expectations (APQ-E), which is structured in seven dimensions: Training for career development, Personal and social development, Student mobility, Political engagement and citizenship, Social pressure, Training quality, and Social interaction. The invariance of the factorial model of the APQ-E was tested with LISREL 8.80, based on a bivariate latent model and maximum likelihood estimation, with Satorra and Bentler correction (1994). All items contributed to the representation of the factors, and the factors showed good validity and reliability for country and gender. Therefore, we obtained factorial invariance of the measurement model for country and gender. We present the final version of the common questionnaire for Portugal and Spain, and for women and men.